Ecosystem capital

1. Ecosystem Capital

2. Ecosystem Capital
• natural goods: provisioning services that can be extracted from
ecosystems

4. Ecosystem Capital
• natural services: regulating and cultural services that can be
extracted from ecosystems; not easy to put price tags on these

6. Ecosystem Capital
• Total value of 1 year of global ecosystem goods: $41 trillion

8. Example
• Mangrove wetland in Thailand
converted to shrimp farm:
• Shrimp: $3375/acre over 5
years
• after 5 years, site is
abandoned
• Mangroves: $14,450/acre
(spawning grounds for local fisheries, coast protection, etc)
• Restoration: -$2200/acre

9. Value
• A natural area will receive protection only if the value a society assigns
to services provided in its natural state is higher than the value the
society assigns to converting it to a more direct human use

11. Natural Resources
• natural resources:
natural ecosystems and
the biota in them •
expected to produce
something of value •
most common value:
economic
• ecosystem capital is a
more appropriate term

12. How do you put a price on...?
• forests modify climates and
absorb and hold water in the
water cycle
• mangroves help prevent
erosion and filter water from
the land
• forests and the ocean absorb
CO2
• any others....?

13. Private vs. Public
• some lands are publicly
owned...
• some are privately owned...
• some can’t be owned at all...
• regardless, humans
domesticate and convert
landscapes
• over 50% of land is now
cropland, causing the loss of
over 50% of forests